In 2015, a group of talented young opera singers came together in St. Louis and had a magical summer. The four—baritone Johnathan McCullough, mezzo-soprano Kelsey Lauritano, tenor Joshua Blue, and baritone Robert Mellon—had been chosen for the Gerdine Young Artists Program at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
For Lauritano, Blue, and McCullough, it was their first professional job in opera. For Mellon, then 30, it was one of his final seasons as a young artist before graduating to bigger things.
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But that summer bonded them in a way they’ll never forget.
“I always talk about that 2015 season,” Mellon says, “as one of the most enjoyable, entertaining, and hilarious summers of my adult life. If I could go back and do that 2015 season again, I’d do it over and over again, because it was more than just the music. It was the friendship, it was the joking, it was the laughing, it was the connections. It was a beautiful, beautiful time.”
This summer, Mellon is getting that do-over. The four friends are 10 years older, and they can’t all party like they used to, or even bounce back as quickly from the physicality of their scenes. Lauritano is now based in Germany; Blue and McCullough are both in Pennsylvania; Mellon, a native of Long Island, New York, now lives here in St. Louis. And for the first time since 2015, all four are in the same company—and it just so happens to be, once again, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where all four appear in Die Fledermaus.
No one planned the reunion or made plans because of it. It is more a happy surprise than anything. Says Blue, “The art form is a very nomadic one, and we’re constantly traveling to different places, and that’s the beautiful and horrible thing of this life, is that you get to see people, make really beautiful connections with them, and then disappear physically from their lives for months to years.” But the fact that all four are back where they started, exactly 10 years after the summer they remember so fondly? That feels like something only Hollywood would make up.
As is the fact that they slid back into the camaraderie they previously enjoyed. “Just going to the parking lot and seeing the tent up brought back a lot of fond memories,” McCullough says. “And it’s like picking right up where we left off. It’s like we saw each other yesterday, even if it’s been years.”
Looking back on the summer of 2015, Lauritano says they bonded in part because of the way the Gerdine Young Artists program works, which involves all of its participants being in the chorus for any show that requires one. That forces all the young stars-in-training to work together, Lauritano says: “You’re learning how to, simply put, collaborate.”
But, they agree, the spirit of St. Louis’ program also helped cement their bond. As young artists, they all lived in the Webster University dorms, where they shared meals, played games, and stayed up too late talking. They also got to partake in the unusually democratic nature of Opera Theatre of St. Louis productions, where even the stars come to the tents after the show to have a drink with excited patrons.
As Lauritano observes, many opera companies give big donors the chance to meet the performers afterward. What makes St. Louis unique, she says, is that everyone is welcome: “You’re given the opportunity to mingle with as many of the public as possible who want to be there.”
Blue adds, “I love the fact that Opera Theatre of St. Louis has provided a way for us to directly interact and spend time with the people who have spent their time and money to see us do a thing, and to hear how it moved them, or how much they enjoyed it, or to hear what their favorite part was. Something that is not lost on me as a really important piece of the puzzle of making art is that connection with people outside of the performance.”
This spring’s reunion has involved plenty of reminiscing about the good old days (McCullough recently unearthed some funny videos from 2015 that Mellon says definitely provided a good laugh). But they’re also forming new memories. While some have parts in multiple shows, they’re together for Die Fledermaus, a fresh take on Johann Strauss’ 1874 opera, which includes all the music and tomfoolery that made it a classic, only set in 1959 New York City.
The show incorporates a lot of improvisation, Lauritano says, which suits the friends just fine: “When you have such strong relationships with people from the get-go, it makes it so much easier to create comedy.”
Hearing the friends talk about the show, it’s hard not to think about seeing performers crack up on Saturday Night Live. Says Blue, “My only goal when I walk on stage is to try and make my scene partners break by doing just ridiculous things. And it works with the show when it happens, so they can’t get angry at me.”
He adds. “There really is no straight man in Die Fledermaus. Everyone is the funny man. Everyone is the comedian.”
